The waiting game has finally started to yield some results for Sistani and the military forces pressing alSadr and the Mahdi Army. If Allawi is able to successfully marginalize alSadr without total destruction of the Ali Mosque and the young fighters inside, it will be because of the moves Sistani has made throughout the crisis. And if the government and the Americans are not the ones primarily blamed by the Shi'a and the Iraqi population in general for the death and mayhem of weeks of armed confrontation, again the credit can be laid at the feet of Sistani for taking measured, credible but non-negotiable positions on the proper place of Sadr's militia (and other renegade armed resistance) in Iraq today.

Spokesmen for Sadr said they were willing to be flexible on some of their demands before turning control of the Imam Ali Mosque over to Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the country's top Shiite religious leader.

A high-ranking Sadr aide, Sheik Ahmed Shibani, said the rebels were willing to let security at the mosque be handled by other religious figures. That view signaled a change from the demand that Sadr's Al Mahdi army guard the shrine. The sacred site is believed to contain the remains of Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad.

In remarks to reporters early Monday, Shibani also seemed to back away from the demand that Sistani conduct an inventory of the shrine's valuables before a hand-over. Sistani had refused to allow his representatives to enter the shrine until the militants left. Abu Thir Kinany, another Sadr spokesman, warned against intervention by the U.S.-backed Iraqi government.

"A religious committee must be formed to handle this great, sacred shrine," Kinany said in an interview on Al Jazeera satellite television. "We don't trust this government and consider it a source of terrorism."

The question then becomes how interested either alSadr or Allawi is in a "solution" that is not a definitive "defeat" of the other. At this point it would seem that "victory" would ellude either of them. The LA Times opines that this "first major test of authority for the interim Iraqi government" is leaving the Prime Minister appearing "weak, alternating alternating between threats of military action and pledges to avoid attacks on the shrine.

A deal in which Sadr handed control to Sistani, a far more eminent figure, would appear to allow both sides to save face. Sadr would avoid capitulating to the government as his forces pack up and leave.

Jaber Habib, a political scientist at Baghdad University, pointed to growing pressure on Allawi and Sadr to bring the crisis to a peaceful resolution. "The Iraqi people don't want more bloodshed," he said. "At the end of the day, you can't get a solution only with the military. You cannot only show muscles."

That is a lesson conclusion -- that might is not the only or even the best answer -- appears to be one that Sistani is trying to teach the Iraqis.